


astraphobia

by alliariondak (Sprytemark)



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, Oneshot, but they have BIG SIBLINGS NOW, i just wanted to slap words on a page man, or really just what usually comes with it, they r friends, unbeta'd unedited dare i say unfinished?? we die like fools, vanven are afraid of thunderstorms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 06:13:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21248756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sprytemark/pseuds/alliariondak
Summary: There's the smallest little crackling echo from the clouds, and Ven almost drops his book on his face. Vanitas barely notices the oncoming storm, too engrossed in figuring out what the heck alchemical malleability is, but he does notice Ven tense and flip over onto his stomach, waiting.“Scared of a little thunder, Ventus?” Vanitas smirks, feeling Ven’s fear curl faintly around his ribs.“Yes,” Ven snaps, bluntly. Vanitas raises one eyebrow.(oh, don't get me wrong, they're both scared of them)





	astraphobia

**Author's Note:**

> milk tea this is for you you absolute pain-inducing rascals i've been in a frenzy since this morning

There's the smallest little crackling echo from the clouds, and Ven almost drops his book on his face. Vanitas barely notices the oncoming storm, too engrossed in figuring out what the heck alchemical malleability is, but he does notice Ven tense and flip over onto his stomach, waiting.

“Scared of a little _ thunder, _Ventus?” Vanitas smirks, feeling Ven’s fear curl faintly around his ribs. 

“Yes,” Ven snaps, bluntly. Vanitas raises one eyebrow. 

“We don’t usually get thunderstorms here, but when we do, they’re kinda… big.” He lets out a little half-laugh, one hand still splayed over his book, shifting his attention to an explanation. “That’s how it gets to be so sunny, most of the time. It’s just that the end of Summer br-“

_ CRACK- _ ** _BOOM!_ **

Suddenly the thing is _ right _ overhead and Ven leaps to his feet and scrabbles at the door and Vanitas has abandoned the book he was reading and one hand digs nails into his elbow while the other shakes at his side, where Void Gear scrapes across the floor. He drops it back into his heart with a scatter of black sparks. Vaguely he can sense Ven’s heart stutter in fear but the sound is _ nothing _ compared to the heartbeat pounding in his own ears, ice working its way down from there. 

“T-terra?” Ven calls, down the echoing hallway. Rain starts to make static-noise against the windows, louder and louder until it reaches an almost violent pitch that makes him want to shove his hands over his ears. “Aqua?”

Vanitas can’t process why he would think to call for them, instead frozen in an irrational loop of _ where is it where is it what is that where is he what is that— _ and he knows it’s irrational, which would usually bleed some element of annoyance into his chest, but it refuses to feel anything but a staccato of _ no, no no no, where’s the way out _,

** _BOOM!_ **

Ven ducks hard, recoiling with a whimper, and tears into the hallway. Vanitas wants to run after him, the receding steps like abandonment to the storm all on their own, but his feet are rooted to the spot. He only realizes he’s summoned his helmet when he can hear his breathing clearer, harsh and ragged in his ears. He blinks, hard, trying to dispel whatever memories are clawing at the surface, but it doesn’t work and he can feel the harsh desert air in his throat and—

Another lightning bolt splits open the sky, and Vanitas runs. 

* * *

Ven nearly crashes straight into Aqua, who turns the momentum into a sort of half-spin and hugs him to her chest. He almost pulls away toward just holding her hand instead, but another crack of thunder just makes him bury his face deeper into the crook of her elbow. 

“S-sorry Aqua, I-“

“Hey, it’s alright. I didn’t forget.” Aqua leans down so her face is level with his. “Let’s just go into the library study until it’s over, okay?”

Ven nods, resolutely looking at the ground. The study is small, and cozy, and has a couch specifically designed, Ven thinks, for sleeping and talking through nightmares and being scared of thunderstorms. It’s where they end up, sometimes, more often now than before. 

“I brought a textbook,” Aqua prods, gently, earning a shaky giggle from Ven. 

“Boring,” he mumbles. 

“That’s what they want you to think.” A sharper, but shorter rumble of thunder interrupts her halfway through, and Ven flinches like he’s been hit. Aqua’s heart sinks, even though she’s used to it. It doesn’t make it any better. 

“Come on. Terra’s probably getting a snack, he’ll be here,” she says, ruffling his hair gently. The sound of the rain seems to curl around Aqua, softening and turning to gentle mist in her wake. Ven nods, and follows her, above the clouds. 

* * *

Terra is, in fact, getting a snack, and he was already getting a snack when a thunderstorm startled him and made him drop a rice cracker on the floor. He’s cleaned it up and gathered a few more (as well as a handful of leftover jam cookies, for everyone _ else _ in the castle), and is remembering the way towards the library when he stops, and backtracks. 

“...Vanitas?”

Vanitas is under a side table in the hallway, in a tight ball with his knees drawn up to his ears, shaking like a leaf. Tiny licks of darkness flicker about under his feet, barely contained. He doesn’t answer. 

“Hey, you alright?”

A huge blast of thunder answers for him, rattling the tables and pictures. Vanitas chokes, somehow curling further in on himself, not even hearing Terra. 

Terra melts. It didn’t even cross his mind, that Vanitas might be scared the same way Ven is, but it’s more obvious to him in retrospect. He kneels down, puts the little package of cookies in his pocket. 

“Aw, hey, Van,” he murmurs, and puts his hand out gently, like he’s approaching a wild animal. He’s not exactly sure how to go about comforting him, if Ven’s insistence that they’re nothing alike is anything to go by. He’s never asked for it before. Vanitas flinches away from his hand once it enters his field of vision, but leans back down almost as fast. He pulls his nails away from the glass covering the back of his head, clawing into his jacket instead. 

“Let’s go somewhere better than the floor, huh?”

Vanitas’ head jerks up to stare at him, and then disconnectedly shakes. He’s safer under something, with a wall against his back. Terra cautiously brushes Vanitas’ fingers with his own, and at no negative reaction, moves to his shoulder. 

He’s practically shivering, still, rapid breaths keeping an arrhythmic time with the shudders— the loop he’s trying to give himself of (_ even out, even out, it’s just a storm, it can’t touch you) _ not helping. Every bolt of lightning just triggers a memory of how it _ feels, _ how it _ burns _ , strange glass-fragments of too-old memory bringing more flashes of dead metal that snap back to bright blue flickers and tying the string tighter. Terra rubs gently at his shoulderblade, down his back, catching with his thumb, gently brushing away the shards. Slowly — _ very, _very slowly — he uncoils from a knot into more of a tense pretzel, regaining some semblance of control over his breathing. 

“You okay?” Terra asks. 

Vanitas nods jerkily. Wrong question. Terra hums. “Do you wanna go somewhere warmer? I have senbei.”

Hesitation, and then another much smaller nod. Vanitas makes to stand up himself, but a long crack of thunder shakes the windows and in a flash he’s grabbed onto Terra like a lifeline instead, digging his nails into his bicep. Terra doesn’t mind, really, and uses the opportunity to scoop Vanitas into his arms and get him out from under the table. 

Vanitas _ melts _into Terra’s arms, practically burying himself in there. The black glass of his helmet melts away too, in favor of further squashing his head into Terra’s shirt. Terra only catches a glimpse of his eyes, but they’re bloodshot, his pupils little cat-slivers. 

“We’re going to find a couch,” Terra says, softly. Vanitas takes a deep breath as an answer, and Terra starts walking again. 

“...this doesn’t…” Vanitas rasps. 

“Hm?”

“This doesn’t mean anything.”

“Doesn’t have to,” Terra responds.

Vanitas nods, relaxing his vice grip slightly, and lets himself be carried.


End file.
